ISA Marines
Interplanetary Strategic Alliance Marines are the ground component of the ISA Navy. The ISA Navy transports the Marines to and from their theaters of operation and supports them when they are on the ground. Each of the ISA Navy's Cruisers can carry 7,500 troops, most of whom would be Marines and their support personnel. The Marines use several different vehicles on the ground, these include Archer Tanks, Jeeps, Intruders, APCs, and (occasionally) hovercraft. The Marines' most basic unit is a squad. Each squad contains several Marine grunts and a medic. Each Marine is armed with an M32 Knife, an M4 Revolver, and an M82 Assault Rifle. One grunt in each squad seems to use an LS13 Shotgun instead of a rifle, and another possibly uses an M224-A1 LMG. Unlike the ISA Army, the Marines do not seem to have specific Heavy Weapons Experts, with each Marine being capable of several different tasks. Ammunition and personal equipment are kept in pouches across the thighs and in backpacks, respectively. Marines are clothed in heavy duty combat gear with padded body armor, helmets, knee and elbow pads, and black combat boots. When the Vektans called upon Earth to provide it with reinforcements after the Helghast invasion, Earth answered with a large naval task force being loaned to the ISA Navy; as usual, this task force carried its own complement of Marines. The Marines reinforced the severely weakened ISA Army units on Vekta, and finally liberated Vekta from the Helghast. After Vekta was liberated, the ISA launched a retaliatory attack against the Helghast's home planet of Helghan, with the Marines at the forefront of this invasion. Arriving approximately two weeks before the second wave, the first ISA assault wave took heavy casualties, but succeeded establishing several planetary beachheads. After the arrival of the second wave, which notably included a few Special Forces units, the attack resumed in earnest. After intense fighting in both cramped urban and dangerous desert wasteland conditions, the ISA forces steadily gained control of vital territories in and around Helghan's capital city, Phyrrus. However, the Helghast unleashed a devastating surprise counterattack that destroyed most of the ISA's orbiting atmospheric command fleet, including the ISA's flagship. In addition, the commanding officer for the entire Helghan campaign, Colonel Jan Templar, is killed in the surprise attack by Helghast Colonel Radec himself. With mounting losses and a drastically reduced support structure, the ISA's forces were nearly annihilated when Scolar Visari detonated the Red Dust nuclear weapon in the center of Phyrrus; with most of the remaining ISA forces concentrated in the city, this was a severely crippling blow. In a desperate gamble, Captain Jason Narville-who was now the de-facto leader for all remaining ISA ground forces on Helghan- rallied any and all remaining Marines in an all-out, last-ditch attack on Visari's palace, assisting Alpha Squad in it's capture, and accidental killing, of Visari. The remaining ISA Marines are now stranded on Helghan as a surprise Helghast fleet begins to bear down upon them. Marines are the first to fight on the battlefield and are known for their honor, valor, and most importantly, their dedication to the ISA. Ironically, with their vaunted reputation as being one of the ISA's finest ground units, they are clearly seen being constantly slaughtered both in-game and in the opening cinematic of Killzone 2. It was only the arrival of a Naval Legionnaire contingent-Alpha Squad itself- that helped turned the tide on Helghan. Identified Formations *6th Marine Division *8th Infantry *32nd M.A.T. *Convoy Avenger *Convoy Punisher Weaponry *LS13 Shotgun *M4 Revolver *M32 Combat Knife *M80 Rocket Launcher *M82 Assault Rifle *M224-A1 Light Machine Gun Trivia *Garza is friends on some level with one Marine, Jeffries, assumed KIA after his Intruder is shot down in the Corinth River stage. It may imply that Garza had served with Jeffries previously, or maybe even that Garza has some history within the ISA Marine Corps before joining the Legion special forces Alpha Squad. Category:ISA